South Africa Wakes Up to Wal-Mart

South Africa Wakes Up to Wal-Mart

The power struggle between labor unions and Wal-Mart has raged for
years in communities across the country, though the retail
behemoth's PR machine has managed to maintain its spiffy brand and
unbeatable low prices. But the company may see challenges ahead as
it moves onto new frontiers. The next battleground could be South
Africa's burgeoning consumer marketplace, and labor
groups are watching nervously as the Biggest Box of All descends on
Africa.

When Wal-Mart was negotiating for a majority stake in MassMart,
the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union
(SACCAWU) sprang into action. SACCAWU, which claims to
represent most of Massmart's workers, warned that the mere
prospect of the Mart-Merger has emboldened anti-union forces.

A statement issued last month warned of "the
beginning of the Walmartisation of the sector," noting that union
leaders had:

observed a marked shift and increased hostility by many major
retailers towards SACCAWU, engaging in aggressive rebranding,
restructuring, re-engineering, repositioning culminating in
retrenchments in most if not all cases; and general witch-hunts
on shop-floor leaders in many stores throughout the country.

The union launched an education campaign to inform workers about
Wal-Mart's arsenal of union-busting artillery,
including instructions for management on "How To Remain Union
Free." From shutting down unionized stores to harassing
organizers, the company has earned condemnation from the international
human rights community.

SACCAWU's campaign led to the formation of a broad "Anti-Walmart Coalition"
in early November. Criticizing the non-transparency of the
dealmaking so far, the groups demanded the full engagement of
labor in Wal-Mart's negotiations. The Coalition presented 15
demands, including:

There must not be cancellation of any existing agreements and
down variation of terms and conditions of employment.

The terms and conditions of employment covered by existing
agreements with SACCAWU must be extended to all Massmart
operations throughout the continent where the same do not exist.

There must be clear local procurement policies towards
developing local agriculture, food processing and manufacturing,
economies with clear decent work imperatives in job creation.

And in a noteworthy nod to American compatriots, the coalition
declared, "Walmart must stop its opposition to the U.S. Employee
Free Choice Act."

The coalition members, who included the members of Africa UNI Global Union for skills and services,
and the Congress of South African Trade Unions,
agreed on the need for "an assessment of the challenges of the
dangers of this bid for the retail sector, the economy in general,
decent work, new growth path, the Buy South Africa Campaign,
implications for agriculture, local manufacturing and food
processing, suppliers as well as distributors given Walmart`s
procurement policies."

The campaign in some ways parallels the US-based Wake-Up Wal-Mart
campaign, affiliated with United Food and Commercial Workers
(UFCW). Though the campaign has over the years toned down its
aggressive PR war, it continues to engage people on the community
level-attacking the franchise from the standpoint of the
consumer, taxpayer, underpaid associate, and mom-and-pop shop.

Michael Bride, UFCW's deputy organizing director for global
strategies, told In These Times that the South Africa
organizing effort could be a model for workers in Wal-Mart's
original backyard:

What is interesting about South Africa at this point in time is
that there is a vigorous debate raging in the country about the
type of economy that is required in order to facilitate
development-do people want a society blindly serving the economy
or an economy delivering to citizens the type of society to
which one should aspire? It is difficult to imagine against such
a backdrop, that Walmart's business model, predicated on
squeezing suppliers and aiming towards the lowest common
denominator, will escape proper scrutiny.

If past is prologue, business-labor inmity will likely only
intensify in South Africa's developing economy, regardless of
Wal-Mart's promises to behave nicely. So far, though, the
coalition's demands might be filtering up to executives, reports The Guardian:

Walmart, which has long battled with trade unions in the US,
pledged today to "respect and honour all pre-existing contracts
with organised labour bodies" and insisted it would continue to
use local suppliers and manufacturers.

SACCAWU kept the pressure on in late November by mobilizing
workers at various retail and wholesale firms for a one-day strike action to demand a
"Centralised Bargaining Forum." This mechanism would help develop
industry-wide, standard labor agreements, which might act as a
check on Wal-Mart's retail hegemony, particularly as Massmart
plans to open dozens of new outlets annually throughout Africa.

In the context of Walmart entering the South African market our
campaign for Centralised Bargaining should be seen as part of
our struggle against... Walmart imposing their business model on
South Africa, with its far reaching implications for the economy
well beyond Massmart or the wholesale and retail sector.

But what will the struggle look like on grand opening day, when
eager South African shoppers stream into the massive corporate
bazaar that has already intoxicated millions around the globe?
Even Wal-Mart's strongest critics seem resigned to its steady
international expansion. Still, the experience of the South
African unions suggests that labor can learn how to stay just one
step ahead of the company's sprawling global footprint.

Michelle Chen is a contributing editor at In These Times. She is a regular contributor to the labor rights blog Working In These Times, Colorlines.com, and Pacifica's WBAI. Her work has also appeared in Common Dreams, Alternet, Ms. Magazine, Newsday, and her old zine, cain.

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